with an average of 11.7 points per game, and he also led the Greek team in free throw shooting percentage at 87.8 percent. Spanoulis also played with Greece at the 2010 FIBA World Cup, where he averaged 13.7 points per game, which made him Greece's leading scorer in the tournament. Coaching career After he retired from playing professional club basketball, Spanoulis began a new career, working as a basketball coach. He began his coaching career, working as the head coach of the Under-18 EuroLeague Next Generation Select Team. Spanoulis led the Under-18 Next Generation Select Team to the 2021–22 EuroLeague Basketball Next Generation Tournament's Finals, where they lost to Mega Basket's Under-18 team, by a score of 82–61. On 24 June 2022, Spanoulis was officially announced as the new head coach of the Greek Basket League and FIBA Champions League club Peristeri Athens. Personal life Spanoulis' older brother, Dimitris, is a former professional basketball player. Spanoulis is married to Miss Star Hellas of 2006, Olympia Chopsonidou. Together, the couple have six children: Thanasis Spanoulis (born January 2, 2010), Vassilis Spanoulis Jr. (April 5, 2012), Dimitris Spanoulis (June 5, 2013), Emilia Spanouli (August 3, 2015), Anastasia Spanouli (September 25, 2017), and another daughter (January 20, 2020). Spanoulis' basketball idols, and favorite players as a kid, were Michael Jordan and Nikos Galis. During his playing career, Spanoulis is often referred to by the nicknames V-Span and Kill Bill. When Spanoulis played with Maroussi Athens, he was given the nickname Bill the Butcher, by Tracy Murray, who was at that time a player of Maroussi's rivals, Panathinaikos Athens. Spanoulis was the first Greek-born player to play for the Houston Rockets, and he was the third Greek-born player to play in the NBA. While he was with the Houston Rockets, Spanoulis was friends with teammates John Lucas III, Jake Tsakalidis, Shane Battier, Tracy McGrady, and Steve Novak. Over his playing career, some of the other basketball players that he was friends with included: Mike Batiste, Tony Parker, Carlos Arroyo, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, Roderick Blakney, Nick Calathes, Ioannis Bourousis, Dimitris Diamantidis, Theo Papaloukas, Georgios Printezis, Panos Vasilopoulos, Mike James, and Dušan Vukčević, among others. While he is best friends with Nikos Zisis, and he was the best man at Zisis' wedding. Spanoulis was one of the idols of Greek basketball player Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Slovenian basketball player Luka Dončić, when they were youths in Europe. Antetokounmpo